Many industries use a catalog to organize parts or services that may be available for purchase. Other industries may use a nomenclature/classification system to classify parts or services. Some industries may have several different classification systems that are used by different partisans in the industry. The use of different classification systems often results in confusion since the same part or service may be differently classified in each of the different classification schemes. For example, in the automotive industry, Europe and the United States have different classifications systems for automotive parts. In Europe, a TecDoc catalog/classification system for automotive parts is used (see www.techalliance.net for more details about the TecDoc catalog/classification system that is incorporated by reference herein.) In the United States, an Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) catalog/classification system is used (see www.aftermarket.org for more details about the AAIA catalog that is incorporated by reference herein.) Each of these different classification systems uses its own ontology which is a classification of the parts in the automotive domain. However, the ontologies used by each of the classification systems is different so that the same automotive part may be very differently classified in each of the different classification systems. This difference becomes a significant problem when a US automotive industry company is requesting a part (based on the AAIA catalog/classification) from a European manufacturer that is using the TecDoc catalog.
This same problem of different catalogs exists in many different industries. It is desirable to be able to merge the different classification systems (and ontologies) for an industry into a unified classification system that consistently classifies a particular part. For example, in the automotive industry, it is desirable to merge the TecDoc and AAIA catalogs. In order to merge the catalogs and/or create a unified classification system, an ontology for the unified classification system must be created, maintained as terms are created or new parts are created, etc. and verified to ensure that the ontology is correct.